The Gallery Mt Macedon 

DIANNE DAWE

PHOTOGRAPHER & KNITTER  

I spent the first 11 years of my life in Adelaide.  Dad was a passionate gardener, and with Adelaide's great climate, we had a huge vege plot, plus lots of fruit trees, as well as beautiful roses.  I can remember "helping" him every moment he was in the garden!

When I turned 8, he gave me my first camera, one with manual settings too.  Dad loved photography as much as he loved gardening, so we would spend hours together while he taught me about the settings on my camera - F8 or F16. flash or not!! For  an 8 year-old, this was enough to cope with. 

Cameras have certainly changed over the years, and now I have one with so many settings, it is very easy to mess up still! Even now I use a SLR as I love them. I enjoy taking photos of wildlife, flowers, people and places I visit. 

Tarn House, my home, has a large orchard and several vege plots, so my time spent with Dad has been recalled to help tend my garden.  I make many jams, lemon butter  and mustard now, plus grow seasonal fruit and veges to eat or bottle. 

When I was about 4, my very favourite aunt, Patti, taught me to knit so I could make clothes for my teddy and dolls. She was a dressmaker by profession in her single days, plus obviously a great knitter.  We spent lots of holidays together, and since she didn't have children, I got very spoilt with her attention.  I am awful at sewing but I guess that is because Patti made so much for me that I didn't get around to learning more than I had to!  However my love of knitting has carried on through the years when I knitted nearly every top I wore in my teens and twenties.  Then I always made baby clothes for my friends as gifts.  Of course when I had Tim and Elli, they had LOTS of woolies!!  Even now Patti has resumed knitting again, as she has joined a craft group at her retirement village - she is knitting me scarves to sell at bus group stalls!  I have been knitting scarves this last Winter for the Gallery and have really enjoyed clicking the needles again during the cold nights.